Chapter 10 (The Union Forever)
CHAPTER 10 THE APOCALYPSE MARCHES SOUTH ' ' ' "We are Hellhounds sent to escort the Americans to Sheol. And though 'we may lose this war and the sun may set on the British Empire, we will make these curs pay dearly." - Gordon Drummond, Commander of the British Army of Canada'' The amount of British troops in Canada in 1812-13 was incredible. William had fallen hook-line-and-sinker for the trap and had left the British Motherland undermanned, all for the sake of defending glorious Canada from the Boney Frogs, Colonists, and their nonexistent invasion. However, by late 1813, the Corsican Ogre was turning his eyes to the snowy remnant and current bastion of British power. Facing continued reluctance from the Republican Union to join the Alliance, Bonaparte grew uneasy and took it quite personally. He then basically threatened the Republican Union government into finally joining the Allies in a formal way. The French dictator then called for troops to help in the finally proceeding invasion of Canada and for military access to move through R.U. lands. The R.U., under Chief Consuls Oliver Wolcott, Jr., and Joseph Bloomfield, was very hesitant to get involved, mainly because it hated to ally with its southern neighbors for anything and still harbored grudges against the French over the Franco-American War. When the Chief Consuls received a promise of new territory (the R.U. wanted to expand badly to compete with the South, but had no where to expand in before this), it sealed the deal. The British commander of the Army of Canada was Gordon Drummond, the first Canadian-born officer to command a British army. He tried to ship troops back to England when news began arriving of the disaster in Europe. Several thousand soldiers died when their transports were sunk by Danish sloops prowling the cold waters of the North Atlantic around Greenland. To top it off, the newly hostile R.U. had made a surprise attack into New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The troops in Halifax and Fredericton, which formed about 15% of the British Army of Canada, were bottled up on both sides and were taking heavy casualties. General Philip McDonald planned to bust out at St. John's and then march along the coast until he would come up behind American General Zebulon Pike's forces. After disabling Pike he was to march south, spreading terror and fear in the R.U. and try to burn as much of the country as possible. Canada wished to punish the Union for allying with those that were currently trampling over Britain. Zebulon Pike was indeed beaten, and beaten badly. McDonald requested that Drummond bring up every bit of soldiery Canada had in a full frontal assault on the Republican Union. McDonald stated that, "We are going to lose this war, Commander. We are going to lose no matter what. But damn my eyes if we aren't going to see the Republican Union burn before we're done. I ask you to join me on this attack, and like King Leonidas and the 300, we will march gallantly and with our heads held high to our own glorious demise." Drummond responded to McDonald's request by saying, "Aye, I will come. We are Hellhounds sent to escort the Americans to Sheol. And though we may lose this war and the sun may set on the British Empire, we will make these curs pay dearly. This is God's Work, McDonald. Kill all you find. Take no prisoners. Decimate them. Britannia shall not go silently into the night." The Republican Union called for immediate assistance from the other Allies, knowing they were about to experience one of the worst invasions in the past five centuries. French troops were en route, but not in large enough numbers-- in fact in downright small numbers. Maryland had fortified, Virginia was preparing, but Georgia and the Confederation were far too busy in the Caribbean. But the Confederation, Georgia and West Florida, as well as Spain, seemed extremely slow in just giving a darn about the hateful Union's fate, which was, in a way, a fair reaction, considering the R.U.'s attitude to its neighbors. They essentially wanted to see the R.U. get taken down a notch. This decision and reluctance to help, though seemingly wise at the time, doomed the world of the future to a horrible fate. The beginning of the true dystopia of human history was when McDonald plowed through the terrified militias in upper New England. One city after another burned. The British wanted nothing more than revenge and supplies to keep the fight going, not to add conquered territories to the defunct Empire. No, they sought only enough food and ammunition to pillage the next town and burn the next courthouse. When Drummond joined in, cruising across the R.U.-Canadian border with no resistance at all, he had a few brief skirmishes with the Green Mountain Republic of Vermont before its government fled in terror southward. Leaving that small country to rot in its own failure, the Commander of Canada marched down to northern Massachusetts to join forces with McDonald. Together, they overwhelmed Zebulon Pike a second time, where Pike died fighting at Mt. Greylock (January, 1814). Canadian militias were still coming down from Northern New York, pillaging as they went, creating a trident formation of armies aiming to impale New York City. But currently, the Anglo-Canadians were laying siege to Boston, the cradle of the hated American monsters' independence. The R.U. was collapsing, and the panic of losing everything was very real to most. Bloomfield and Wolcott were furious at the seemingly deliberate lack of willpower from their "allies." President Madison of Virginia was finally sending in troops to put the Canadians down, and the Carolinians were marching to the call of battle, but it was clear by this point that the Republican Union would be virtually destroyed by Canada before the Allies came in and helped in full force. Boston fell late March. Except for some brief scavenging, the Redcoats didn't actually occupy the city. Instead, they elected to burn as much as they could. Then, they packed up an marched to New York City. Canadian manpower was running rather low at this point, but their rage seethed on. Drummond and McDonald approached New York City in mid April. On April 22, several cannonballs crashed into the outskirts of the huge city. However, Virginia, Maryland, and Carolinian armies were at last fast approaching from the south, and the wrathful Canadians were forced to give up and retreat west, uniting with the militias that had been burning New York state itself. Together they trudged west, along the New York-Pennsylvania border. Then, in a surprise move, they jutted back southward into Pennsylvania itself. Following a brief campaign, the Canadians were defeated at Clarion, and from then on out Drummond and McDonald were on the retreat. The war was lost in the New World, and just barely continuing (equally hopelessly) in Britain itself. However, over 70,000 Republican Union men, women, and children had been killed during the Canadian Invasion, and a scar was left on North America that would only deepen as time went on, and is considered by many to be the beginning of the so-called '''"End Times Era." True horror would result from the actions of Gordon Drummond and Philip McDonald... horror beyond their wildest imagination. Eyewitnesses of the savagery of Drummond's Campaign described it as "Hellish." One pastor of rural Massachusetts wrote in his diary that "It is difficult to write down what I have seen. In all my years of life I had yet to see a killing. Yesterday I saw 15 young men of Davidsport rounded up and shot in the woods behind my house. Their blood is still wet on my property. Then, the British soldiers raped the women of the town before hanging the one who resisted the most. Her body dangles naked above the burnt out cinders of our town. The soldiers then took all of our horses and as much of anything else they could carry and started back to Canada, singing songs and laughing as they went. I do pray for America's swift vengeance upon these demons, and upon the scum who promised us protection and followed through not." The Union wept. The Union screamed. The Union would never be the same. Before the last British soldier left American soil and slunk back into Canada, many Yankees were already calling for swift retribution. Aaron Burr called for "Almighty God to destroy all who stand against my dear nation and perpetrate such ignominious atrocities upon her." Everyone wanted one thing: Revenge. But they couldn't have it yet. America was far too weakened. And so it lurked, always just beneath the surface, a burning hatred ready to retaliate tenfold on the northern neighbor. But even more intense was the growing belief that the Allies had abandoned them, that Napoleon and the Southron nations had used Yankeedom as a meat shield to keep the Canadian forces occupied. The Great Back-Stab. This idea would burrow in deep and lodge itself in the Union psyche, gnawing at it for decades. It would never really leave.